Announcing the publication of my first book in English!
Tales of Superhuman Powers – 55 Traditional stories from around the world
Published by McFarland
It is a collection of multicultural folktales that feature superpowers such as invisibility, super strength, and even X-ray vision: 55 folktales with a total of 61 abilties (I apologize to all OCD people including myself). Several of the stories included are from the Hungarian tradition, translated into English for the first time, while the rest come from cultures from Mongolia to Ireland all across the world. The tales are organized by power into four major chapters: Physical abilities (strength, flight, etc.), Mental abilities (telekinesis, telepathy, etc.), Elemental powers (pyrokinesis, water breathing, etc.), and Transitional abilities (phasing, shape-shifting, etc.). Every tale is accompanied by a list of sources, comments, educational benefits, and notes on other variants of the story.
I had great fun working on this book: I made a list of the most popular superpowers from comics, movies and TV shows, and then started filling the list with folktales, myths and legends that feature the same powers. Sometimes the only difficulty was to choose from the great wealth of tales (try ‘super strength’), while other times I had to search long and hard to match an item on the list (telekinesis almost beat me). I also tested the stories with live audiences to see how they worked, moved and behaved when told. I am still a storyteller, first and foremost. I recorded the versions I tell based on how the listeners responded to them (and then noted what changed, in the comments section. I am trying not to confuse the readers…)
The cover features a page from the Persian Book of Kings, depicting a scene from the legend of the invulnerable Isfandiyar (one of my favorite tales in the book). I am super happy with the look, Persian art is gorgeous.
The book is available on Amazon, both in print and Kindle format.
